Looks like no Unfinished Builds being completed this year. My water heater busted and got my man cave all soggy wet. It is all being repaired and there is no way I will get anything done in time to earn my ribbon. Well at least this year I can't blame it on my procrastination. Just for prosperity I might do a group shot pic of all those projects - oh so close - not getting finished this year.

So looking forward to your progress on this little gem, Doc! Eyeballed this one on a news review and thought it was a cool little piece. Perfect SeaBees subject. Be sure to keep us posted.Never built a Mirror Models. What's your opinion? I've been lusting over their Canadian CMP trucks for a possible North African Italian capture version. On my radar, but haven't popped yet.

Mirror Models CAT D7. Will represent a USN Seabees dozer. My father-in-law was in the Seabees during WWII.

Complete left side. Colors are various rust acrylics = dark brown/roof red. I will add pastels or weathering powders once the mode is complete. The contrast from the Navy Grey is stark. But we'll fix that. And yes, I know that there's a lean in the exhaust pipe.

The exaggerated sag in the upper part of the treads was due to having one extra link!! I didn't realize this until they were all glued on I compared the correct left side with the right.Luckily, I was able to pry off the treads and remove the offending extra, and get all the remainders back on properly.Now working on the blade and rear winch assemblies.

Hi all, some interesting entries still arriving.Just a quick update on the Blitz project. Recently got down a base coat of Tamiya German Grey, thinned down well and even added a little Tamiya Paint Retarder. Now, as much as tried to apply light thin coats very patiently to allow the black and white primer to come through, I still ended up with a heavy application and much of the effect was lost... Oh well, live and learn. My first major Tamiya paint application was a success otherwise and I followed up with a lighter airbrushed highlight subsequently which provided the look I was after. What I was really impressed with was the Mig blue filter I applied the next day. It makes all the difference in the world and really takes that German Grey/Blue to a whole new level. It has a very realistic look, at least to my eye.

Decals are a combination of homemade stencils as pictured below, dry transfers and waterslides to come up with the unit I wished to represent during the 1939 Poland Campaign. Researching early LKW's both pre-war and early war revealed lots of different variations and many overly large "not so tactical" tactical symbols which I tried to replicate on the tailgate, which I'm pretty happy with.

Well, late to the dance, but that's been the story of 2017 for me! Stopped work on this one because I didn't like the fit of the upper hull/fighting compartment to the hull, and the fit of the vehicle roof to the fighting compartment. As I look through what's left to do I wonder why I lost interest so close to being done!

Quick update here. Sprayed the road wheels with excellent results (again, I've never had good luck with airbrushing, so this is big for me). Only had to touch up three or four wheels, and the ones that did need touching up were very minor.

Everything got a base coat of green, then I began experimenting with blue tack on the turret. The stuff worked very well for me, another skill added to the mix! However, the brown paint that I used was too dark. Try to make out the brown splotches from the black ones.

In addition to being the wrong color, the paint itself didn't seem to dry evenly and it came out very messy looking (marketed as a "concentrated water color" instead of an acrylic so maybe that has something to do with it). I got a different paint (same brand as the green, which worked very well...FW Acrylic Artists Ink) in a redder hue, remasked the turret, and sprayed over the bad brown. This was the result:

Numerous coats didn't make a difference. I didn't want to drown the sucker in paint (like I usually would do), so I put down a coat of black which covered everything very evenly and looked nice. But then further applications of the red-brown turned out exactly like before. I'm don't get why it would look perfectly smooth under black coats, but then show up again when the red-brown was put on top. Wouldn't the base coats neutralize what's underneath?

Joining this campaign quite late, but hopefully still enough time for me to squeeze in an entry. I recently got back into the hobby after about 3 years away from my workbench. My current build is a Tamiya P-51B (starting out easy!) but for this campaign I'm going to finally paint my Tamiya Flakpanzer Gepard that I built 5 years ago. Here's my build log, for anyone who's interested to see what I was working with.

TLDR: I had a lot of trouble airbrushing and only a month or so free to build, so I made my Gepard completely OOB, not even putty allowed (my Squadron Green tube had dried up). As a result, I had a fully articulate model but with a good number of seam lines and gaps.

First things first. This model feels way too light in my hands. It's entirely a personal issue and won't affect the model in any way on the shelf, but it just bugged the hell out of me. Made "patties" of metal BBs and duct tape that I'll stash in the hull once I'm done painting.

I pulled off the wheels, drive sprockets, and side skirts. I also knocked off the antenna blocks, and the grenade launchers fell off on their own. I was careful to keep each side's parts isolated.

Bundeswehr Gepards didn't wear their side skirts. This model is already technically inaccurate for a number of reasons, so I'll be including the side skirts to hide some track and hull issues. Plus they look cool. The Gepards I saw that did have skirts tended to have notches cut out towards the drive sprockets, so I did that too.

I also cut out the handles, which were actually raised rectangles originally...doesn't make much sense, but whatever. It's fixed now.

Other modifications that I neglected to photograph include:--filling in gaps with Tamiya putty (infinitely better than Squadron putty)--placing sheet styrene over significant holes along the suspension (I think intended for RC components?)--sealing up the rear instrument cabinet (very ugly seam if left movable, and I never saw a real Gepard open up like that...again I suspect it's for RC stuff)--my goodness, so much sanding...

After all the above was complete, I primed it all with Testors gray rattle can.

Up next will be spraying NATO camo. This is a huge step for me, as my past experiences with airbrushing have been abysmal, to put it mildly 5 years later, here's hoping that with age comes talent!

Richard, that Blitz is beautiful! Don't rush it on our account. It's a hell of a piece of work!

Progress on the tracks for the ZSD.. the razor blade is for my wrists in case I get the bright idea to do tracks with rubber blocks on the outside AND inside ever again...Going with the primer grey, rubber, bunch of pigments, fixed with a dark wash, then stippled with a dark black/brown effect I saw go past online.

I haven't used my airbrush in a while and it's probably why I am dragging my feet on the Merkava. It's not so much the painting as it is cleaning up the airbrush and any mess I've made. And I always seem to miss a spot.

So far I've puttied up the turret seam and sanded it but I think I need a bit more putty.

Hi all,Just a quick update of my early model 1939 Polish Invasion Opel Blitz. Michael, thank you for the vote of confidence. It's been well over a decade since I've last done any serious modeling and this vehicle interior served as a test bed for not only finding out if I have any painting skills left after such a hiatus, but also a chance to work with some of the many new modeling products that are now available. If anyone is currently building this kit or has it on their radar you can check out my build progress on the 1939 Poland campaign hosted by Hudson29 pages 9,11,13,20,21.Below another interior pic which will, when completed, be virtually unseen through the small cab windows. Oh well! It was good practice.

Well, this project has been nothing but a series of firsts for me. Below I've decided the build and detailing have gone on long enough and that it is now time for paint. This is the most photo etch brass, resin aftermarket and scratch building I've done to date and I can't procrastinate anymore or I'll miss yet another campaign!Headlight covers are made from one of my favorite modeling materials - wine bottleneck lead foil as is the front window flap added to the Mig resin tarp. Early invasion photos show virtually all vehicles with some sort of headlight cover in a wide range of materials. These will be painted to represent a heavy russet leather unit made rendition with material I figured would be readily available to a Cavalry unit and easily fabricated by the organization's saddlers and leather workers.

Well, now it's time to paint and my main reason for procrastinating all along. It's been a long, long time. My airbrush hasn't seen the light of day since the late 90's and it's still in the original box from 1979 when I purchased it as a teenager determined to be the next Shepard Paine. Oh...and I'm going to try and use Vallejo Primer. I've never primed before and I've only ever worked with enamels and oils. This acrylic stuff is new to me and I'm a bit apprehensive at this point.Below - grit my teeth and got a coat of primer down, spattered a bit and realized I need to thin a little more, but the primer leveled out beautifully and looks flawless when dry.After much YouTubing and forum surfing I decided to try the black and white method using this time Tamiya acrylics, white obviously, and also a first time use of this paint in an airbrush....more progress pics coming soon.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get so far finished with one part of the build and not the other? I am not 'throwing stones', I've got a LOT of part built kits, I am just wondering how they got to this point.

Hi Mike,On the T-64A hull, I tried to paint the enamel Model Master (especially Forest Green 1713 instead of Mr.Color Green 303). And on the Leo 2A6 turret, I used the lacquer Mr.Color set for German NATO. I think they're completed in the following days. But because of running along many campaigns nowadays, I almost missed them.By the way, your camo painting on the ZSD90 is interactive.Regards,K.

So I have the Coelian at the point of hitting it with paintand as there's nearly 2 months to go I've hauled out another flak panzer in need of completionOver the years I've lost the box and the exhaust stacks - spares box to the rescue!

Hi all,Two of many kits were not finished for about 3 years. Trumpeter's T-64A and HB's Leopard 2A6EX. I'll try to make them this year.

Regards,K.

K, Hey! I recognize that ZSD in the background! -grin-That is great looking cammo and finish on the hull and turret. If you don't mind me asking, how did you get so far finished with one part of the build and not the other? I am not 'throwing stones', I've got a LOT of part built kits, I am just wondering how they got to this point.